


On A Rooftop in L.A.

by meirenyu



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alex spikes the punch, Bi!Rhett, Drabble, Drunken Confessions, Fluff and Angst, Good Mythical Potluck, Link finds him alone, M/M, Rhett's smoking cigs on the roof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 21:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12218985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meirenyu/pseuds/meirenyu
Summary: Two friends desperately try not to be so in love with each other. Written for the Good Mythical Potluck.





	On A Rooftop in L.A.

“I thought you said you were gonna quit.”

The statement hung in the warm night air that blanketed the roof-top of the studio, almost untouched by the bursts of laughter, punchy hip hop, and conversation filtering up from the party down below. Rhett leaned against the railing, slowly exhaling a thin stream of smoke, watching as it drifted up into the starless night. It was moments like these he missed the southern skies of sweet Carolina.

“I never said I’d go cold turkey,” he muttered, glancing down at the half-burnt cigarette between his long fingers. Link leaned in close to him against the railing with a red Solo cup in each hand. “Double fisting it, buddyroll?” Link passed a cup to him.

“Thought you might like some,” he said. “It’s disappearing fast.” Rhett huffed a breath of laughter laced with smoke.

“They’re all in their twenties,” Rhett groused, half-gesturing to their employees gathered around the tables laid down below on the fenced-in patio. “How are they still drinking Hawaiian Punch at their age?” Link took a long drink from his cup. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“They’re in their twenties, Rhett,” Link said pointedly, a mischievous twinkle in his cool, blue eyes. “Besides, I don’t think it’s the Hawaiian Punch they’re so crazy about.” Rhett took a long drink, too, and immediately grimaced.

“Jesus,” he laughed. “You could strip paint with this.” Link smirked. “Alright, who’s the culprit?”

“Caught Alex smuggling in a couple bottles of vodka earlier. He thought I didn’t notice.” They both knocked back almost half of the sickly sweet cocktail. “But I figured, eh, what the hell? This whole potluck’s for celebrating, so…”

“Well, someone’s getting a spanking tomorrow, then,” Rhett said in a low, gravelly voice. Link wished he could blame the evening breeze on the deep chill it wrought. A bubble of inquiry rose in him suddenly, nearly bursting. He swallowed hard, avoiding Rhett’s calculating gaze. “What?”

Link found himself all flustered, wanting to ask, needing to know, compelled to put his thoughts out into the universe. “You, uh…” He began, struggling for the hundredth time to find the right words to say. “You’ve certainly been leaning into that whole… uh, _gay thing_.” Rhett went rigid beside him, turning away to take a drag of his cigarette.

“The whole gay thing,” he repeated hollowly, and Link immediately turned to him with big, soft eyes.

“That’s not what I meant, bo,” he began, reaching out to rest his palm against Rhett’s bare arm. It took a moment before he realized he should peel his eyes away from where their skin met.

“Then pray tell, my fair Linkster, what exactly you meant,” Rhett murmured through a cloud of smoke. Link breathed heavy.

“How do you know?” He asked with surgical focus. “That you’re…”

“A bisexual?” Rhett ground out slowly, in a voice that normally would've made Link laugh. Rhett gave his best friend a glance. “I think I’ve known for a while. There’s… there was someone I felt very strongly for, and I thought it was just a fluke, wanting him so much.”

“But you’re married,” Link said dumbly.

“The heart wants what it wants,” was all Rhett would say to that.

“What, uh… what happened with him?” Link whispered, not really wanting to know, frantically scrambling to choke down some ugly, bitter emotion that was coursing through him. Rhett smiled wistfully.

“Nothing,” he sighed, but his eyes grew heavy, and he took a final drag of his cigarette. “It wouldn’t have been right. It’s better that he never knows, I guess.” Link chugged down the rest of his spiked punch, needing a little bit of liquid courage.

“Have you ever…” He cleared his throat. “Have you ever seen anyone you work with... like that?” Rhett finished off his drink and moved to throw himself down on the beaten up old sofa nearby.

“C’mon, Link,” Rhett sighed wearily. “You know that’s inappropriate.” Link stood before Rhett, gazing down at him unsteadily.

“Yeah, but the heart wants what it wants, right?” He couldn’t fight the green, green envy wrapping thorny tendrils around his heart.

“How much have you had to drink?” Rhett asked, taken by the way Link wavered before him, ephemeral and sparkling in the dimness of the night.

“I had a couple,” Link answered defensively. He couldn’t help but stare now, laying claim to every fiber of Rhett’s being with his red-rimmed eyes. “How do you know you’d like to _be_ with him?” He swayed under the weight of Rhett’s hard gaze.

“Sit down before you fall down,” Rhett commanded, and Link wove himself between the arm of the sofa and the source of all his painful thoughts and unwelcome fascinations.

“How do you know?” Link whispered, his eyes so wide and open that Rhett could almost feel his own heart breaking.

He gazed down at the man then, grey eyes serene as they caressed Link’s pale face. “How do I know?” He whispered, breath a wisp in the breeze. Link nodded slowly, unable to look anywhere but up into Rhett’s grey eyes. Rhett paused, and maybe it was from the stress of their work schedule, or maybe from the several beers he’d had earlier, or maybe from Link’s fragile expression, whatever it was, he ran his fingertips so gently across Link’s jaw, their faces so close now. “Because when I’m alone with him, when he’s sitting next to me on a rooftop in LA, a little boozy, a little scared, I want nothing more in the world than to kiss his beautiful lips.”

Link’s chest swelled with a shaking breath as his best friend’s words sank in. “Oh,” he sighed, reaching up for the man’s neck, pulling him closer. Their lips met with a feather’s touch. Link could feel his whole world dissolving around him until nothing was left but Rhett.

When they pulled apart, breathless, Rhett shakily asked, “How long, Link?”

Link softly smiled, cheeks flushed. “Since forever.”


End file.
